10 Comic Book News Stories That Shocked The World‏

7. Gay Marriages For (Nearly) Everyone!

Where Brian Wood and his ilk may be dragging comic books back into the dark ages with their actions and attitudes, there are steps being taken to make superheroes more progressive, more even-handed with its depictions of sexuality, race and gender, more befitting of pop culture created in the 21st century. The past few years have seen big comic book storylines and events covered not just in the mainstream press, but also in LGBT quarters, in the cases of the coming out and marriages of characters in comics published by the Big Two. The X-Men's Northstar had been out and proud since 1992, the first openly gay character to appear in a mainstream superhero comic at that point. Where that was big news at the time, his sexuality was rarely touched upon again. That was, until 2012's Astonishing X-Men #50, where the Canadian superhero tied the knot with his long-term boyfriend Kyle. At a period in US history where gay marriage remains one of the most contentious topics in the country, Marvel committed to the storyline, earning it airtime on phenomenally popular TV shows like The View. A similar amount of publicity was afforded DC when it announced one of its flagship characters would become openly gay. The character in question ended up being the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott, who wasn't quite one of the publisher's big heroes, but definitely on the level of Northstar, and still a big enough deal for it to appear in mainstream media. Unfortunately, almost as big a story was that Batwoman - another openly gay character in the DCU - wasn't allowed to get married, as the result of an edict passed down from the series' editors. It was such a scandal that the book's creative team quit as a result, which just goes to show how many shocking news stories can come out of this one topic.